


Humans of The Heights

by gill



Category: In the Heights - Miranda
Genre: Gen, and my headcanon that usnavi was sonnys legal guardian, but shhh it is in my brain, featuring usnavi and sonny closeness, humans of new york tribute, which i know according to lmm isnt canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:16:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 849
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gill/pseuds/gill
Summary: An interpretation of Usnavi, Vanessa, Nina, Sonny and Benny being captured in photos and interviews by Brandon Stanton of 'Humans Of New York' at different times in their lives.





	

 

 

 

“It’s been hard, learning to be basically a dad at the same time as I was still getting my head around running a business. I became my cousin Sonny’s guardian when I was about nineteen. I was a kid raising a kid basically. And I had plenty of crises of self-doubt and fear, but Sonny always grounded me. He gave me a reason to work every day, and he gave me a reason to come home and care for myself and someone else every day as well. I’m twenty-eight now, and he’s just turned eighteen. Today we spent the whole day looking over college options.

I couldn’t be prouder of him, I never even finished high school myself.

I had my own business. It was a little bodega a few streets away. It was my parents and I’d been running it ever since they died just before I turned sixteen. I finally sold it this week. That was hard. But with Sonny leaving for college, it felt like the right time. I’ve had a cleaning job on the side for a while now, and I was starting to make more money from that than I was by trying to keep the store going.

I had actually won a bit of lottery money a few years back, but most of that went towards Sonny’s college fund and maintaining a dying store. It wasn’t sustainable. The rent was just getting to damn high. It was always going to happen I guess.”

 

* * *

 

 

“I’m just visiting. I did grow up in the city though actually. It wasn’t a great neighbourhood opportunity wise.

Every day I dreamed about getting out, and then, eventually I did.

I used to go back and visit a lot, I had a boyfriend still living and working in the barrio, and my friends were all there. But as time went on, I just couldn’t bring myself to maintain those relationships. I guess I had separated myself from that place and my past so much that I couldn’t handle any ties back to it.

I haven’t been back there in years.”

 

* * *

  

“It’s been a hard week at work for me, but today I took the afternoon off, I’m on my way home now. It’s my daughter’s birthday and me and my husband are taking her to the zoo.”  

 

* * *

  

 

“I was raised by my cousin for most of my life. He’s only ten years older so our relationship really fluctuated between brotherly and fatherly. He had to work really hard to provide for us when he was still only young, I mean he was nineteen and running a store, and looking after me, all by himself. And I didn’t really cut him much slack as a kid. I guess I couldn’t see that the reason he worked so hard was all for me, it took a fight between us when I was in high school to really make me change my perception of things. I had gotten in with a pretty bad crowd, started skipping class and was on a bad path and my relationship with my cousin was pretty tense. I was basically right on the cusp of dropping out of school when I found out he had been saving up all this money for me to go to college. It was a gut punch because we had always been pretty much skint, but he always found money for important stuff for me, like doctors and school. Never much for himself. And then I found out he had thousands set aside for me that was untouched, no matter how hard times got. He only ever put money in, never took any out. Finding that out was a big turning point, it changed my perspective on everything.

I did eventually turn things around, cut ties with the kids I used to hang around, focused on school. Then all this good stuff kept happening, we won a bit of money in the lottery, I got into a good college and graduated last year. It’s been good. I had never seen my cousin as happy as he was on my graduation day. He couldn’t stop crying. I couldn’t stop crying either. That was a really good day.”

 

* * *

 

 

 

“Everything’s going suspiciously well in my life right now. My wife is brilliant, and so hard working, and successful. I’ve got my own business that’s really starting to take off, and we have a beautiful daughter who is so full of love it’s ridiculous.

Honestly, and this is a little embarrassing, the biggest problem in my life right now is that I shaved my head myself this week and it’s a really close shave. Basically, there’s no hair there. It felt good in the moment but when I came out of the bathroom my wife and daughter laughed at me for a solid minute. Now I just don’t want any of the people I know to see my bald head. Thus the hat. But you know, that’s a pretty minor problem to have. Hair grows back. And I can really rock a hat. Things are good.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that Vanessa did try true happiness and fulfillment outside of the barrio, her story isn't a sad one!
> 
> Ok, this is my first contribution of any ITH fic out in the world. I wanted to do something basic to start me off and this idea wouldn't leave me alone. This fandom deserves all the content in the world, but I'm not much of a talent when it comes to writing, so yeah, sorry for my meager offerings. Anything is better than nothing though, right?
> 
> I tried to make each of their profiles vary in tone and length a little bit as thats part of the beauty of HONY posts, whether or not the result was any good is up to you haha
> 
> (also have to mention that finding each photo to use as a HONY type substitute was way too much fun)
> 
> Anyways, hope this provided at least some entertainment!


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